The Justice League Trailer

Disclaimer: This post has spoilers of Batman v Superman. The short summary of my reaction to this trailer is that I enjoyed it and while I'm still skeptical of this film, there are a lot of good things I'm seeing.

So I'm not gonna lie. I have been pretty nervous about Justice League. The truth is, Batman v Superman hurt me. I used to get joy out of superhero films and the speculation of such films. Now I go into a film like Doctor Strange, a film I feel I would enjoy immensely if it had come out in 2015, but now I recognize the formulas and a part of my child like innocence has died.

But then the first actual trailer comes out for Justice League. And yes I consider this the first official trailer because the first thing that was released was more a special set of clips from comic-con and not so much a full on trailer. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but as far as "trailers" go, it wasn't a very well put together trailer.

Now here's the thing. I am still very nervous for Justice League. I put a lot of trust into Zack Snyder to handle my two favorite superheroes of all time, and he mucked it up. Now I'm giving my trust to him once again to take on my favorite superhero team of all time and... honestly, I was scared for a little while...

Now, since I've seen the trailer, I am still skeptical... but... well let's talk about it.

The trailer picks up where we've seen Bruce Wayne (played by Ben Affleck) since the end of Batman v Superman, going around trying to find other meta-humans in order to establish a team that will fight the next fight against those who wish to do humanity harm since the death of Superman. (Sorry for the spoilers?). He explains again that he's gathering a team of people with special abilities in order to face a threat that is on the way. Of course that refers to Aquaman (played by Jason Momoa), The Flash (played by Ezra Miller), and Cyborg (played by Ray Fisher). But the threat seems to be growing larger in this film because Wonder Woman (played by Gal Gadot) states that the threat is not on the way anymore, it has arrived.

We see a lot of cool stuff in this trailer and we see a lot of action. We see the parademons from the dream Bruce Wayne has in Batman v Superman. We also see the Justice League in action as Batman, Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg all start working together and fighting individually

and together. Now there is a pretty cool scene with Joe Morton as Dr. Silas Stone in possession of a motherbox and a parademon appears behind him. While it looked really cool, I am a little bit concerned about the use of the parademons for a couple of reasons. The first being that I just think it's too early for the Justice league in general, but also, they seem like they are just the faceless alien Army that we've seen in so many superhero films recently, that it already makes me pretty worried.

But I'm trying hard to look at the good things.

The action is pretty great. This is the first time we've really seen all these members of the Justice League really come together (see what I did there? Because they used that in the song!) and fight on the big screen. The other great thing I picked up from the trailer was that they didn't really give away a lot of the story. We still have the idea that there's going to be a dark force coming to Earth that the Justice League will have to fight and defeat.

Because I've already spoiled Batman v Superman, I do want to talk about the larger picture of this and how important a trailer like this is.

This is one of the first times we have seen all five of these characters together on screen and it's a pretty important moment. The thing that I really enjoyed about this trailer was just the aesthetic of the team and how epic these guys look.

I've always thought the method they should be utilizing when filming these characters is portraying them as modern greek gods and goddesses, and I'm not the only one. Think about it, DC superheroes really do have incredibly supreme powers over any of the heroes from the Marvel cinematic universe, and while that sometimes makes them less relatable, we want to see Aquaman utilize his powers of the sea, we see that in this trailer. We want to see Barry Allen attain the speed force, we kind of see that in this trailer. We want to see Cyborg... do Cyborg things. And he does!

Another issue with the trailer, and this is one I've heard from a couple of people is how Cyborg has a distinct CGI stink about him. I'm sure that the CGI for Cyborg is going to get better, I'm not incredibly worried right now, but I've heard a couple of critics make mention of this and ask, if this isn't the finished project, why would you show this?

I think the reason why is because Cyborg is kind of the member of the Justice League we've seen the least and this was the opportunity to show him off a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for him, I just think they could have waited a little bit to show him off, especially since the movie doesn't come out until November.

Something that I noticed in this film was that each member of the team showcased someone from that particular heroes individual world.

You had Amber Heard appear as Mara. You had JK Simmons appear as Commissioner Gordon (even though that's supposed to be the only scene he's gonna be in apparently, JK Simmons is a boss). You had Billy Crudup show up as Dr. Allen, Barry's dad, something that I hope they capitalize on as well as they did on the TV show. And of course, you see Lois Lane... which I will talk about in a second...

It's obvious that each member is going to have their own little introduction scene where they are living in their own world and they need to be pulled into the format of the team.

I can only hope that we are familiarized with these characters enough so these new characters and familial characters actually mean something and aren't just used for fan service. I hate to bring in The Avengers, but when the first Avengers movie came out, there were a couple of small cameos from characters familiar to the Avengers. Gwenyth Paltrow made a cameo as Pepper Potts and that worked because we were already familiar with that relationship and it made sense for her to make a small appearance. In Age of Ultron (which was done a little sloppily but still works for the example) when Stellan Skarsgard's character appeared for a small cameo, it made sense because we remembered him.

Really the only character that is really familiar to us is Lois Lane and that's a supporting character for a character who doesn't even appear in this trailer, Superman.

I did not expect to see Superman in this trailer. I don't expect to see him until the last or second to last trailer for this movie, probably not until August or September. However, the question still is up in the air, how will Superman fit into this story. Is he going to be resurrected? Is he going to dawn the Black suit? Will he be evil? Is he going to have a mullet? We don't know.

If you read my spoilers review for Batman v Superman, or have picked up on any of my vibes about how I felt about Batman v Superman, you will know that I did not like the way they handled Superman in this film and I certainly thought that killing him was the wrong choice for multiple reasons but mainly because I thought it was a premature move and wasted the Death of Superman storyline.

Something that was pretty interesting from this trailer was how I really did feel like this is the team that would be built in a world that had a Superman and no longer had one... you know... instead of a different one...

The Justice League is what you would need to fight the true evil that is headed towards Earth. And while it hasn't been confirmed yet, it would also be the team you would need in case a certain Super man came back to life and was instead against humanity for some reason instead of for us. You would need a Wonder Woman, a Poseidon, the fastest man alive, a Cyborg, and the Dark Knight.

Now I don't know that Superman is going to be evil, but I'm a little worried about this character because while I look at this team and as much as I love it, I feel like it's still a little bit incomplete without Superman, I don't really want Superman in this film.

I would rather have a film or two developing these characters as a team and doing their best to fight off the evil. However despite all their best efforts, they're still no match for the great evil, whether it's Steppenwolf, or Darkseid, or whatever. I feel like there needs to be a need for Superman and if he comes in as a good guy in the second half of this film, you're just adding you're heaviest hitter onto your already All-Star team.

I'm sure they have a plan for Superman, but I have reason to be skeptical based on what they've done with this character in the past.

I've talked about this in the past but I don't think Warner Brothers really understands how much they royally screwed the character of Superman. Remember, not only does Superman die in Batman v Superman, but so does Clark Kent. It would make sense for Superman to come back to life, but if both Superman and Clark Kent come back to life miraculously, people are going to start connecting the dots. You think Perry White isn't going to notice when his reporter comes back to life magically as the Man of Steel? Come on!

I think actually seeing these characters in action is better than seeing them lined up. I can't say there's anybody in this group that I'm not excited about. Jason Momoa looks great, Ray Fisher looks pretty good. I think that Ezra Miller is a good actor and with a dramatic character like Barry Allen, I'm sure he'll be a fun addition to the team.

And Gal Gadot looks absolutely stunning. I mentioned this on Twitter, but I'm convinced that regardless of how good Wonder Woman or this movie is, I'm not on the Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman band wagon. She looks fantastic and every trailer I see her in, she continues to be a grade A badass.

The one part of the trailer I am intrigued and yet a little worried by is the scene where there seems to be amazonian warriors fighting parademons.

I have no idea what this is all about and I'm uncertain about how its going to fit within the movie. I hope it's epic and I hope that the parademons serve as good cannon fodder but there is a great evil and a better story at the end of the day. 

Overall, I'm excited for Justice League. While my childlike wonder of Superhero films may have been stabbed by the DC cinematic universe, I still have faith that it can be brought back with the superhero films that are coming out in 2017. You have to give DC credit, while their movies have gotten progressively worse, their trailers continue to get better and better. I think that there are a lot of good things I'm seeing from this trailer and I'm sure there's a lot we're going to be seeing before November. 

Am I nervous still? Of course. 2016 was not the year that we all expected for superhero films and clearly not the year we expected for DC superhero films. But if anything can bring my spirits for DC films back, it's Wonder Woman and Justice League. 

But those are my thoughts on the Justice League trailer. What did you think? Are you excited for Justice League? Does this trailer look good? Is it going to be a repeat of 2016's trailers or is 2017 going to be different? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for future reviews I should post in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews on this blog. 

I'll leave you with this. I didn't really get a reaction trailer out on the newest Wonder Woman trailer. I think this trailer is absolutely awesome! Enjoy!